Thirteen.
Caleb Close would be dead in seven hours.
It was a consequence which he had come to terms with long ago, an unavoidable complication. Caleb knew he was to die. He knew where he would be when it happened and had prepared for everything. He felt no sadness or apprehension as he knew he would feel no pain.
It would be exactly as it had been the time before and the time before that.
Caleb Close had died eleven times.
Since the discovery of The Forge, death was no longer a full stop. Death had become merely a means to so many possible ends. The Forge meant death was, amongst many things, a method of survival, a sense of security, a gateway to near instantaneous, immeasurably far interstellar travel.
True Death became a rare, almost mythical event. Humanity had tamed death and its uses were limitless.
Caleb stood alone, exposed to the familiar warmth of Wulf 3's sun. He had chosen to go suit-less today which gave Caleb several pros and cons. The main benefit being increased accuracy when working on the habitat's external systems, allowing him to get more done in his now-limited time. The main downside of going without an atmospheric protection suit was his inevitable death.
The Wulf system had been chosen for research due to its almost identical planetary layout to Humanity's home solar system. A yellow dwarf star, orbited by 7 planets, the third of which being positioned a mere 20 million Kilometres closer to its sun than Earth. Still within the habitable zone, breathable atmosphere, liquid water. A perfect place for life to thrive, yet it didn't.
Caleb and his team had been sent to find out if it could.
One.
Adam Sharpe and Alice Rose made up the rest of the team, Adam taking the lead as Chief Engineer. Adam and Caleb had worked together for several years, back when trans-continental forge travel had been mastered. Alice was Caleb's counterpart in Atlanta, Georgia. Early on in the Forge's development, it was discovered that no matter how many copies of an individual's "signature" are stored within any number of Forge systems, the one closest to the point of termination takes on the rebuilding process. Delete the signature from the forge in your country, terminate the host and the first Forge with your stored signature starts up.
It wasn't long before interstellar Forge experiments had began. The Forge Institute quickly established a permanently manned outpost on Earth's moon, and soon after that, Mars became the first planet to be colonised by man. From there, Mankind simply had to get a Forge system safely in place in a habitable environment, and travel to that point was possible by simply blocking the signature within all "local" Forge systems. There was seemingly no limit to the Forge Network.
An un-manned spacecraft was sent to the Wulf system far in advance, designed to deploy into a fully habitable space station, dubbed "The Bothy" upon arrival in orbit around Wulf 3, Earth's twin. Once there, the on-board Forge system would activate, retrieve Adam, Alice and Caleb's signatures and give the go ahead to lock their Earth-based Forge signatures.
At The Forge Institute's remote facility on the island of Iona in Scotland, the three engineers were euthanized. Aboard The Bothy, The Forge began to build.
Two.
Caleb, Adam and Alice made the journey from The Bothy to the pilot station on Wulf 3's surface the old fashioned way, touching down within walking distance from the already-deployed habitat. This habitat contained modest living quarters and a deactivated, empty Forge system. Once Caleb and his colleagues had deemed Wulf 3 to be safe, theirs - and any other signatures could be sent and stored here. After the team had arrived safely and had been rebuilt aboard The Bothy, their signatures were restored back on Earth. Should the worst happen, they would emerge on The Bothy, ready to travel back down to Wulf 3. Should the Even worse happen, they could be recalled back to Earth, should the Bothy be deemed unsafe or in the event of catastrophic failure or destruction. Forge Insurance on a galactic scale. Thankfully this was all being funded by The Institute!
Caleb was getting claustrophobic. It had been two days since the team touched down on Wulf 3.
'I think I'm ready to take this helmet off now please, Adam', said Caleb. They had spent time outside of the habitat in their suits, only taking them off when they were back indoors. Atmospherically, there was very little difference between the habitat and the outside air.
'Look at the numbers, Adam! breathing out there would be like stepping outside on earth when the cavemen started kicking about. Come on! Lets go outside!' Caleb knew just what buttons to press and he knew Adam was starting to warm to the idea.
'We'd be the first humans to breath air on an alien world! And what's the worst that would happen?' Caleb offered.
'Our lungs could burst from the oxygen-rich atmosphere' said Adam.
'No they couldn't. And even if they did, we'd pop out aboard The Bothy all clean and fresh-lunged, ready for round 2. Come on! Alice, are you up for a leap of faith?' he beamed.
'Let's do it. Lets explode our lungs in the name of science!' she laughed.
Adam sighed and stood up, 'It's like being stuck in a cabin with two bored kids. Come on then. Lets take a walk.'
After several minutes deactivating safety protocols on the airlocks, Alice stood aside. 'Ready to do the honours, Chief?'
She gestured toward the door controls, knowing Adam hated being in command.
'I should probably say something worthy of the record books but all the good lines were taken by those Apollo guys and Spielberg... Here goes nothing. Suck it, Armstrong.'
Adam jabbed the door release button on the panel and the twin doors hissed open, the three engineers stepped out into a silent, sun drenched wilderness. Once Caleb's eyes had adjusted to the glare of this unfamiliar yellow sun, he turned to Adam and Alice.
'Told you our lungs wouldn't pop. Let's phone home and tell them we didn't die, eh?'
The team returned to the habitat at sunset, exhausted from their day exploring the new world. It wasn't long before all three had retired to the habitat's sleeping quarters and were asleep. The crisp clean air had been a welcome change from the recycled atmosphere within the habitat. They had all decided, however, to seal up the habitat whilst they slept, rather than risk any unknown elements during the night. The Habitat powered down all non-essential systems whilst the three slumbered.
Two days later they emerged from the Forge System aboard The Bothy.
Their old bodies lay peacefully undisturbed within their bunks on the surface of Wulf 3.
